Bu Lang Mountain Black Tea from Menghai * Autumn 2016

Steepster really does not seem to want me to post this note. As I was typing the next to last paragraph of a review for this tea, it deleted my note as I was typing. It was literally there and then gone. Let’s try this again. I finished up a 50 gram pouch of this tea a little over a week ago, but opted to prioritize a few other reviews and didn’t get around to seriously thinking about posting a review for this tea until this evening. I found this to be a very good Yunnan black tea, but I seem to be something of an outlier in that respect because this does not seem to have been one of the more popular 2016 Yunnan Sourcing black teas.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 194 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 14 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of cedar, pine, malt, molasses, and caramel. After the rinse, I found emerging scents of honey and roasted nuts. The first proper infusion brought out a stronger roasted nut scent. On the palate, the liquor offered notes of malt, caramel, and honey balanced by a touch of molasses and impressions of bitter roasted nuts (almost like black walnut and hickory). Subsequent infusions brought out notes of butter, cream, vanilla, cocoa, tobacco, pine, and roasted peanut, while the cedar finally started to show itself on the palate. Hints of smoke, marshmallow, minerals, ginger, toast, and orange zest also emerged fairly late in the session. The later infusions emphasized mineral, roasted nut, and malt notes balanced by hints of caramel, orange zest, ginger, and toast.

I’m not sure why, but I was not expecting much complexity out of this tea. Instead, I got a ton of it. Though this may not be one of Yunnan Sourcing’s more popular Yunnan black teas here on Steepster, I found this one to be extremely enjoyable. Your mileage may vary.